Tap Tap Click
by Gabfic
Summary: It's really about the simple pleasures in life. Gambit and Storm friendship fic.


Disclaimer: Characters are not mine, but the deck of cards is.  
  
Title: Tap Tap Click  
Author: Gables (selbag@hotmail.com)  
Archive: Please ask me first  
Rating: Gen  
Summary: It's really about the simple pleasures in life. Gambit and Storm friendship fic.  
A/N: This came about one day as I was sitting at my desk, procrastinating. I picked up my deck of cards, and started moving them about. Thus enter Gambit.   
  
  
Materials: For this fic you will need: 1 deck of cards  
1 empty room   
(Because you know you'll want to copy Gambit's actions)  
  
  
  
  
~~~~~~~~  
  
Gambit looked at Rogue's small duffle bag. It couldn't possibly hold all of her stuffed animals and clothes. But there she stood by the front door, fidgeting with her gloves. "So you're leaving then?"  
  
"Yeah, I am." She brushed an invisible strand of hair off of her cheek.   
  
"I should be the one to leave."  
  
"Nah. It's Joseph and I who need some time away from the gang, not you." She brushed at the nuisance again.   
  
Remy reached his arm out toward the single strand that still tickled her cheek, but brought it back to his coat. He pulled out a deck of cards. "Are you coming back?"  
  
She shook her head, and brushed all of her hair back with a hand. The single strand fell back. "Eventually."  
  
He looked down at his hands, watching them as they repeatedly split the deck and then slotted the two halves together. The sound was similar to slight rasp of Rogue brushing her own cheek with her gloves.   
  
"You're not going to make a big fuss about my leaving with Joseph are ya, Sugar?"  
  
Remy chuckled as he looked back up at her. His gloves were silent as he fanned the deck and offered it to her. "You draw high and Remy doesn't say a word when you leave."  
  
Rogue reached out with her green-gloved hand, the emerald color complementing the blue pattern on the back of the deck. She picked a card and pulled it between her finger and thumb. Gambit listened for the hollow sound vibrating between the chosen card's neighbors as her card scraped past. She withdrew slowly, letting the card bend between the clamping force from the rest of the deck and her pull up and away from Gambit's hands. The sound was dragged out as well, until the elasticity of the card sprung it back straight once it was free from the deck. Remy then chose a card before closing the fan against his left palm. He glanced at it before flipping it around.  
  
"Eight. You have a 50/50 chance there, Chéri."  
  
"Not good odds."  
  
"Non."  
  
Rogue looked at the card in her hand and then focused on Remy's eyes.  
  
"Ace high, Sugar." She slipped the card, face up, under his thumb that held the deck in his hand. He slightly lifted his thumb and the card slide quietly on top of the deck.  
  
"C'est la vie" He simply said as he forced his own card back into the middle of the deck.  
  
"If you really loved me, you wouldn't have chosen a game to tell you how to say goodbye."  
  
"And you wouldn't have accepted."  
  
Rogue turned and walked away.  
  
  
~~~~~~~~  
Gambit climbed to the roof. He sat cross-legged and bellowed his trench coat out behind him. From his high vantage point, he could just barely see over the trees to watch Rogue's car exit the grounds.  
  
Idly holding a jack of spades between his first two fingers, Gambit taped the edge of the card against a roof shingle. He tapped it twice, and then ran it over an edge. Tap tap click. Tap tap click. He taped it twice again and then dragged the bottom edge of the card across the shingle. Tap tap scrape. This time there wasn't a small click, but the sound of the card bending, reluctant to get to the edge, and then springing back to shape after it crossed. Tap tap scape ffpt. Scrape ffppt. Tap tap.   
  
He pulled another card from his pocket, the eight of diamonds, and arranged the two parallel to each other. Tap tap scrrrrape ffpt-pt. Scrrrrape ffpt-pt. Three more cards joined the others for a full hand. He held the cards in a poker fan between his thumb and his bent forefinger. With his other thumb he pulled them back and slowly let them slap forward one at a time, hitting the card in front of it. He scrapped the five cards, as a group, along the shingle and was happy to hear a lower pitched gentle brushing sound, accented subtlety with the muted clicks of the cards running over the edge.   
  
Finally Gambit pulled out the rest of the deck. He fanned them all in one hand, each spaced slightly so only clips of red or black could be seen. He ran a fingernail across from the top card to the back, listening to the rapid succession of clicks sounding like a zipper being pulled. Then he ran his finger back the other way. This direction made a different sound, smoother, like a cat purring.   
  
The cards began to glow a deep shade of pink as Gambit energized them. Cautiously, he touched the glowing deck to the roof. The cards, warm with energy, bent easily with the pressure. Gambit brushed them across the roof and closed his eyes to listen. There were no clicking sounds, no tapping sounds, only a soothing hum. The cards vibrated minutely, excited by the energy that Gambit has infused into them, and now, next to the stationary shingles, they hummed. His free hand slightly twitched as he tapped his forefinger against his knee with the resonance of the cards.  
  
"I always knew that you moved to your own beat in life. I did not expect that beat to come from your deck of cards."  
  
"Shh Stormy, listen to them hum. Beautiful non?" Gambit opened his eyes and followed her movements as she sat next to him.   
  
"Do not call me that."  
  
He reabsorbed the energy from the cards and collected them back into a square stack. Carefully, he set the stack in front of her, holding on until the cards found their balance on the sloped roof. "They are singing about anticipation and hope; about the possibility of love and forgiveness. But really, 'tis the song of the siren. And like a fool, I follow every time, only to be shipwrecked again."  
  
Storm gently lifted the top card from the deck. She flashed it toward him. King of Clubs. "That's a lot to get from a humming card."  
  
"De cards have always ruled my life."  
  
"Perhaps you should take up dominos."  
  
"Don't fit in my coat."  
  
Storm laughed.  
  
"Though your laugh is just as beautiful as their song."  
  
"Then follow my voice as I call you to dinner. Anticipate the warm meal and hope that it is tasteful. And since it's Jean's night to cook, you must love her for trying and forgive her for failing." Storm picked up the rest of the deck and then stood. She offered her hand, face up with the deck of cards in it, down to her friend. Gambit's hand covered the deck, and most of her small hand, as he used it to stand. She let go of the deck, passing it back to him.  
  
"Thanks Stormy."  
  
"Lets get off this roof. And do not call me that." 


End file.
